IAS Annual Report 2024-25

Institute of African Studies  |  Columbia University
Annual Report to the Board of Trustees, 2024–2025

Mission and Overview

Since its founding in 1959, the Institute of African Studies (IAS) has served as Columbia University’s hub for Africanist teaching, learning, and collaboration. IAS administers the Graduate Certificate in African Studies, open to master’s and doctoral students across Columbia who seek to deepen their training in African Studies through interdisciplinary coursework and language study. It also offers the Specialization in African Studies at SIPA, providing course support, faculty coordination, and advising for graduate students focused on the continent.

IAS leads an active program of co-curricular events that further support African Studies at Columbia, bringing students and faculty into meaningful dialogue and connecting intellectual work with the pressing social, political, and cultural questions shaping Africa today. Having a visible, physical, and designated intellectual space for Africa at Columbia is essential. As the home for Africa at Columbia, the Institute anchors the University’s Africa-focused teaching, research, and public engagement, providing a central hub where students and faculty connect across schools and fields. It functions as a vital clearinghouse for Africa-related events, opportunities, and announcements on campus. IAS maintains a comprehensive course list of Africa-related classes across Columbia and supports a community of over forty faculty affiliates working on the continent from across departments, schools, and disciplines.

IAS maintains an active social media presence and digital platform that collates news, research, and commentary on African arts, humanities, business, technology, and politics. Through regular updates and collaborations with student clubs and partner organizations, IAS features events on Africa across campus and throughout New York City—raising the visibility of African Studies at Columbia and amplifying the work of faculty, students, and alumni. The Institute also maintains a curated list of African media sites and news sources, ensuring that the Columbia community remains connected to ongoing developments and intellectual debates on the continent. 

IAS is home to more than seven undergraduate and four graduate student clubs—notably the African Students Association (ASA), African Development Group (ADG), SIPA Pan-African Network (SPAN), Nigerians at Columbia, the CU Ethiopian and Eritrean Students Association, and the African Business Club. Club leaders and members regularly gather at IAS to host meetings, plan programs, and collaborate across schools. The Institute provides room space, advertising, logistical and administrative support, mentoring, outreach and planning assistance, fundraising guidance, and faculty connections within and beyond Columbia. IAS support for student-led programming ensures consistent, high-impact engagement across the University—empowering students to organize major events, build cross-school networks, and connect academic study with real-world leadership and collaboration.

IAS also builds bridges with overseas partners, advancing Columbia’s global engagement through collaborative projects and shared programming. Among these, the Alliance T.I.E.R. grant funded African Humanities Project—developed in partnership with Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in Morocco and now in its second year—embeds Columbia graduate students and faculty in joint work with scholars at UM6P. The collaboration strengthens Columbia’s academic and institutional connections to the African continent, drawing faculty from across Africa, Europe, and the United States to develop new courses, tools, and frameworks for teaching and research in the African humanities. This partnership alongside engagement with the CU Global Centers in Africa situates Columbia within a growing ecosystem of Africa-centered research and teaching initiatives, linking it to leading scholars and institutions across the continent.

Events and Programming 2024–2025

IAS sustained a full and visible program of events throughout 2024–2025, hosting more than thirty public and student-led programs across both semesters. These included film screenings, panels, workshops, and a Lunchtime Conversations series that fostered discussion on African language teaching, intellectual history, and diasporic and cultural exchange. Designed to be informal yet intellectually generative, these sessions brought faculty, students, and visiting scholars together around themes such as African language instruction, the future of interdisciplinary African Studies at Columbia, and the role of experiential learning in the field.

A centerpiece of the year’s activity was Lumumba at 100, a cross-school and interdisciplinary student-led conference reflecting on the life and legacy of Patrice Lumumba. IAS provided planning space, logistical and administrative support, and close mentorship to the graduate and professional school students who conceived and organized the event. The conference brought together speakers and participants from across Columbia and beyond, drew a substantial audience and international press coverage (including RFI), and has become a model of cross-school collaboration and student leadership in African Studies. In a related highlight, the Institute hosted a screening and discussion of Soundtrack to a Coup d’État with director Johan Grimonprez. The acclaimed documentary, awarded the André Cavens Award for Best Film by the Belgian Film Critics Association and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, offered a powerful lens on Cold War politics, decolonization, and Lumumba’s assassination.

In addition to these two events focused on the Congo, IAS organized Congo in Context: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives—a high-profile panel that brought together leading scholars and practitioners, including Professors Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja and Séverine Autesserre to discuss the region’s political history, governance, and contemporary challenges. The Institute also supported Standing with Congo: A Call to Action, a student-organized gathering that centered personal testimony and dialogue across African and diasporic student communities, creating space for reflection, solidarity, and exchange on injustice, violence, and the need for economic self-determination in the region.

Collectively, these events formed part of a broader set of IAS collaborations exploring political leadership, governance, and collective memory across the continent. In partnership with the Institute for Global Politics (IGP) at SIPA, IAS hosted a dialogue between Ambassador Martin Kimani, Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and Professor Mamadou Diouf on “Strongmen and States,” examining shifting paradigms of power and legitimacy in African political life. IAS also hosted a panel on African immigrant mental health in New York City, bringing scholars, clinicians, and community organizers into conversation about care, belonging, and the challenges of diasporic life. Both events exemplified IAS’s commitment to connecting academic inquiry with lived realities and to convening interdisciplinary dialogue on vital social and political questions affecting Africans today.

Our grant-supported events and partnerships included the African Humanities Project conference with UM6P in Benguerir, Morocco, and the Ethnographies of Work in Africa workshop, which brought leading scholars and activists into dialogue on contemporary labor and cultural life across the continent. The Ethnographies of Work workshop—organized by IAS and supported by grant funding from the Alliance Program and the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life (IRCPL)—convened anthropologists, historians, and social theorists from Africa, Europe, and the United States to rethink labor as a site of creativity, ethics, and meaning. The two-day event opened with a screening of The Waste Commons directed by Professor Rosalind Fredericks, followed by a dialogue with Zidane Faye, the lead sanitation union organizer from Dakar featured in the film. Their exchange—linking fieldwork, activism, and theory—set the tone for presentations that examined work not simply as economic activity but as a moral and cultural domain. Discussions traced themes of repair, materiality, migration, and precarity, situating African labor studies within a broader global frame to generate new scholarly momentum and networks.

Among the year’s most meaningful gatherings was the celebration of Professor Souleymane Bachir Diagne’s retirement, honoring his extraordinary career and global impact on African philosophy and intellectual life. The program began with an intimate conversation with Professor Diagne in the IAS lounge, where students and colleagues reflected on his mentorship and influence. This was followed by a three-day international conference on his work and legacy, organized in close collaboration with the Maison Française. A major supporter of the event was the He Family, long-time IAS donors whose generosity made this celebration possible. The conference drew an exceptional lineup of speakers—including Étienne Balibar, Pierre Force, Felwine Sarr, Bado Ndoye, and Hady Ba—and filled every session to capacity. Students and scholars traveled from Senegal and across the United States to celebrate Professor Diagne’s lifelong contributions, making it one of the most vibrant and heartfelt gatherings of the academic year. 

Throughout the year, IAS co-sponsored a wide range of high-profile public events on topics spanning African language pedagogy, environmental change, religion and politics, and the arts, in collaboration with the Maison Française, MESAAS, Teachers College, the World Leaders Forum, and the Institute for Global Politics. Highlights included an Artist-in-Residence talk by world-renowned Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama, co-organized with MESAAS. Mahama discussed his large-scale textile installations and institution-building work in Tamale, Ghana—connecting art, labor, and memory in ways that resonated across Columbia’s art, anthropology, and architecture communities.

IAS also worked closely with the Center for African Education at Teachers College to host the Pan-Africanism and Education conference, a landmark event that examined the historical and contemporary role of education in shaping Pan-African thought and solidarity. The conference brought together scholars, educators, and students from across Columbia and partner institutions to explore how pedagogical practices have advanced anticolonial, diasporic, and continental movements for freedom.

In addition, IAS lent support to the Columbia Africa Business Conference, co-organized by two student clubs—the African Business Club and SIPA’s Student Pan-African Network (SPAN). The 2024 conference drew more than 500 attendees, including students from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Penn, and featured major political and business leaders such as H.E. Daniel Chapo, President of Mozambique, and the CEO of Africa Open AI. The event coincided with the United Nations’ Unstoppable Africa summit held during the UN General Assembly, extending the conversation into global policy and investment circles.

IAS was also represented at a World Leaders Forum address by Hon. Bogolo Joy Kenewendo, Botswana’s Minister of Minerals & Energy, who spoke to a packed audience at Low Library on Africa’s critical role in the global energy transition. In these and other ways, IAS continues to make full use of its location in New York City—leveraging Columbia’s proximity to international political, cultural, and economic life to connect scholarship with pressing contemporary issues across Africa and the world.

The IAS lounge remains an active site for Africa at Columbia—hosting coffees, lunches, and informal gatherings that draw students, faculty, and visiting scholars into conversation and collaboration. It continues to serve as the University’s everyday meeting ground for Africa-centered study, mentorship, community, and exchange.

Academic and Student Engagement

IAS administers the Graduate Certificate in African Studies and oversees the SIPA Specialization in African Studies, providing advising, course coordination, and faculty support for graduate students focused on the continent. IAS supported the Citizenship and Social Movements in Africa graduate course at SIPA this year and continues to mentor students across the University pursuing Africa-focused academic, professional, and research pathways.

Jordanna Yochai (SIPA ’25) completed the Graduate Certificate in African Studies this year and was awarded a Boren Fellowship to pursue research and language study in Senegal. Four additional students are currently in progress, including three doctoral candidates in MESAAS and French whose work spans African philosophy, migration, and language politics. Interest continues to grow among graduate students who view the Certificate as an essential complement to their disciplinary training—and as a critical opportunity to deepen engagement with African Studies while gaining a recognized professional credential. In 2025–26, IAS will expand Certificate enrollment through targeted outreach to doctoral programs and strengthen advising in African Studies at SIPA.

Throughout the year, IAS provided advising and mentorship to undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students across multiple schools—including SIPA, GSAS, MESAAS, Columbia College, and General Studies—supporting them in course selection, grant and fellowship applications, letters of recommendations, and professional development. Through its daily engagement with students, IAS continues to function as a crucial hub for community, mentorship, and collaboration in African Studies.

Partnerships and Collaborations

IAS continues to build meaningful partnerships that connect Columbia faculty and students with colleagues and institutions across Africa and the world. A major grant-sponsored collaboration, the African Humanities Project with Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in Morocco, is now entering its second year. Supported by the Alliance Program, the project embeds Columbia graduate students and faculty in joint work with scholars at UM6P and draws on a wider international network of humanists from across the continent and diaspora. It is developing new tools and resources for teaching African humanities and strengthening links between Columbia and emerging centers of excellence on the continent.

IAS also sustains active collaborations with peer institutions and Columbia partners. The Institute co-sponsored major events with Maison Française, Teachers College, MESAAS, SIPA IGP, Global Centers, and the Business School, convening scholars and practitioners around themes such as Pan-Africanism, art and restitution, environmental change, politics, and African language pedagogy. Through these partnerships, IAS advances Columbia’s global engagement while creating opportunities for faculty and students to participate in international dialogue and collaborative research.

Fundraising and Development
IAS continues to invest in its development infrastructure and has been using all of its platforms to communicate its impact to alumni and friends. In collaboration with Columbia’s Development Office, IAS participated for the first time in Columbia Giving Day, launching a successful visibility campaign that highlighted the Institute’s student-centered programming and community impact. Recent social media campaigns have focused on raising visibility and mobilizing small- and mid-level giving through storytelling and alumni engagement.

This work has been accompanied by renewed attention to major donor relationships, notably the He Family, whose past gifts continue to support IAS programming. Over the summer, IAS also introduced virtual drop-in hours for alumni and student club leaders based on the African continent—strengthening global outreach and building a more connected network of Columbia graduates and partners engaged in Africa-related work.

Archival research on the Leitner Family Fund (2009–2017) has led to the development of a refreshed proposal for student support, structured around three linked areas:

  • Collaborative Student Initiatives Fund, supporting cross-school, student-led projects such as Lumumba at 100;
  • Research & Language Fund, sustaining individual research and language study at a time of declining external fellowships; and
  • Professional Development Fund, enabling students to present their work, attend conferences, and pursue Africa-focused internships.

IAS has also strengthened alumni connections through a series highlighting the professional trajectories of past students and grant recipients across academia, business, and international affairs. Together, these efforts have positioned the Institute for renewed philanthropic engagement, expanded global outreach, and long-term growth.

Priorities for 2025–26

In 2025–26, IAS will consolidate its progress by:

  • Expanding participation in the Graduate Certificate in African Studies through targeted outreach to doctoral and master’s students;
  • Continuing the African Humanities Project with UM6P, with a second-year meeting in Morocco and new course materials under development;
  • Building bridges with CU Global Centers and partner universities in Sub-Saharan Africa;
  • Continuing outreach to potential donors and alumni to ensure a stable foundation for African Studies at Columbia.

  • Deepening collaborations with key New York institutions—The Africa Center, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Maysles Documentary Film Center, the New York African Film Festival, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art—to develop high-impact public programs, exhibitions, and events that connect Columbia’s African Studies community with the city’s broader intellectual and cultural landscape.

     

Report prepared by Dr. Jinny Prais, Associate Director, Institute of African Studies — October 2025.